Lecture 4 - Personality (Development & Change)

Question 1

Is personality fixed?

Answer 1

1) William James said character has set like plaster by age 30

2) Mischel et al - how long kids could wait before eating marshmallows predicted life outcomes

3) temper tantrum frequency predicts occupational instability

Question 2

What are the 3 types of stability?

Answer 2

1) rank-order stability - the degree to which the relative ORDERING (position) of individuals on a given trait is maintained over time

2) mean-level stability - consistency in avg. level of traits over time

3) individual stability - absolute consistency at the level of the individual person

Question 3

What did Costa & McRae (1994) find about rand-order stability in personality?

Answer 3

• found test-retest correlations of 0.65 for the big five traits
• if one is above average on a big 5 personality trait at 30, the probability of being so at 50 is 83%
• good evidence for rank order stability being MODERATELY HIGHLY STABLE ACROSS LIFESPAN

Question 4

What are 4 things Roberts & DevVecchio (2000) found about rank-order stability?

Answer 4

1) relatively high (r > .30)

2) increases over lifespan (from ~0.41 in childhood to ~0.55 by age 30, to ~0.70 at
age 60)

3) decreases as test-retest interval increases (~0.60 over a 1-year period, ~0.30
over a 40-year period)

4) is trait general (does NOT vary across the big 5 traits, assessment method, or gender)

Question 5

What influences stability in personality?

Answer 5

1) Genetic influences - probabilistic influence of genes on behaviour / experience

2) environmental channelling - settling down into env, increased env stability, friends, routine

3) environment selection - we seek environments that match, support, and maintain our personality traits
(assortive mating, migration, vocational choice)

Question 6

What did McGue et al (2003) suggest about rank-order stability and change in personality?

Answer 6

® 70-90% of rank-order stability in personality is owing to genetic factors.

® 70% of change in personality is owing to environmental factors.

Question 7

What did Johnson find about heritability estimates of stability in personality?

Answer 7

® Looked at the overlap in heritability estimates taken at two time points.

® Found that perhaps environment also contributes to stability in personality (i.e.
that there is stability to both the heritable & non-heritable components of our
personality traits).

Question 8

What did Caspi & Herbener (1990) suggest about relationships and rank order stability?

Answer 8

® Rank order stability was higher for couples with more similar personalities.

® In this way, your partner’s traits represent an environmental channel which
accounts for the stability of your own traits over time

Question 9

1 statement about mean-level change in personality?

Answer 9

changes tend to be broadly positive - ‘psychosocial maturity’

Question 10

What did Costa and McRae find about mean-level change in personality?

Answer 10

® Found that openness, extraversion and neuroticism drop over adult years; whilst
agreeableness & conscientiousness tend to increase over the adult years.

® This suggests a general tendency for people to become nicer, more responsible,
more set in their ways, less gregarious, and to experience less negative emotions
over time.

Question 11

What did Bleidorn et al find that was different to Robins Mroczek about mean-level change in personality?

Answer 11

there were diverging patterns at the facet level – assertiveness increased whilst
gregariousness & excitement-seeking decreased.

Question 12

What did Robins & Mroczek find about mean-level change in personality?

Answer 12

® Looked at personality change in young adulthood (university students)

® Found that agreeableness & conscientiousness rose, openness & neuroticism
decreased, extraversion remained stable.

Question 13

What influences mean-level change in personality?

Answer 13

1) genetic influences - evolved maturation processes are encoded in our DNA, acting as genetic switches to assist with developmental tasks throughout the lifespand

2) environmental effects - major life transitions (e.g. transition to work), stages and role shifts can all induce mean-level changes in personality

Question 14

What might be the sources of mean-level change?

Answer 14

1) people who are more similar e.g. twins change in ways that are more similar over the course of the lifespan (genetic ‘switches’)

2) universal maturation - cross-cultural studies show this (neuroticism is a bit inconsistent)

3) Cross-species universal maturation (extraversion, openness, neuroticism decrease, agreeableness + conscientiousness rise)

4) transition to workforce (increase in extraversion or ‘agency’) –> but this could be an environmental selection effect

5) transition to parenthood (higher in extraversion + agreeableness, lower in openness) - could also be an environmental selection effect

6) Twenge’s studies on “generation me” – argues that a generation characterized by inflated
self-esteem, egotism, and expectations of the future has led to differences in
personality traits

Question 15

What was an issue with Twenge’s study?

Answer 15

sampling issues (samples of university participants collected were not representative of the broader population)

overestimation of effect sizes (due to individual scores being used over aggregated
scores)

did not find major cohort effects

Question 16

What are 2 beliefs about personality change?

Answer 16

1) implicit personality theory - describes the specific patterns and biases an individual uses when forming impressions based on a limited amount of initial information about an unfamiliar person

2) the end of history illusion - a cognitive bias where we believe that we have changed in the past, but are now ‘complete’ (and therefore don’t anticipate much personality change) when in fact we are always ‘works in progress’.

Question 17

Participants were asked how much they would pay to see their favourite musician
from 10 years ago, and how much they would pay to see their current favourite
musician in 10 years’ time. Participants were willing to pay more money to see their
current musician in 10 years’ time.

What kind of illusion is this?

Answer 17

end of history illusion

Question 18

Beliefs about normative mean level personality change throughout the lifespan are . . .

Answer 18

reasonably accurate.

People also believe that personality changes less with age (i.e. becomes more
stable), which is also true

Question 19

In one study, actual personality change was virtually. . .

Answer 19

actual personality change was virtually identical to the magnitude
of reported change in the ‘reporter’ condition, but substantially larger than the
magnitude of predicted change in the ‘predictor’ condition

Question 20

The Big Five vary across individuals in terms of. . .

Answer 20

DIRECTION

RATE of change

this is due to the role of UNIQUE EXPERIENCES

Question 21

What are some important practical consequences of individual changes?

Answer 21

conscientiousness predicts health, and changes in conscientiousness predict changes in health

changes in neuroticism predict mortality, with high and increasing neuroticism predicting an earlier death

Question 22

The most likely effect of life experience on personality development is to . . .

Answer 22

deepen the characteristics that lead people to those experiences

Question 23

Work experience & individual differences in personality change

Answer 23

Roberts et al. (2003):

® Personality (particularly extraversion) predicted positive work experiences
(occupational attainment & financial security).

® But, positive work experiences also predicted changes in personality (increases in extraversion, decreases in neuroticism).

® Conversely, higher levels of neuroticism predicted lower financial security

Question 24

Effects of travel & individual differences in personality change

Answer 24

Zimmerman & Nyer (2013):
® Examined the effect of studying abroad on university students (vs. controls).

® Students who travelled had increases in openness & agreeableness, and decreases in neuroticism.

® However, there were selection effects observed. Students higher in extraversion and
conscientiousness were more likely to do 1 semester abroad (short-term), whilst
students higher in extraversion and openness were more likely to do 2 semesters
(long-term) abroad.

® Conscientiousness may be linked with short-term travel due to being motivated by
career aspirations, whilst openness linked with long-term travel by motivating one to seek greater immersion.

® For openness and neuroticism, personality change was mediated by increases in ‘relationship gains’. For example, making new friends abroad may facilitate greater
tolerance, understanding & social support.

Question 25

Most personality change events occur. . .

Answer 25

PRIOR to a major life event

For example, increases in conscientiousness & openness prior to the transition to work.

Question 26

Most variance in state extraversion can be predicted by. . .

Answer 26

momentary goals
(e.g. to attract attention; engage in leadership; make a positive impression; form
friendships; have fun)

Question 27

What are the 2 ways people changed in personality in Hudson & Fraley’s study?

Answer 27

1. Via Counter-dispositional behaviour - where people’s goals affect their
   personality states, which in turn results in changes in traits. However, this is
   for E, A & N only.
2. Via ‘Identity’ – where people’s goals lead to changes in traits, which in turn leads to changes in personality states. However, this is for E, C & N only.

No mediators were identified for changes in openness